Brown and Harvard were left quaking in their singlets this weekend, as the Quakers opened inter-Ivy competition by defeating them both.
Despite a tiring week of training, Penn was able to make quick work of the Crimson and Bears, beating them 30-7 and 25-9 on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
"The team came into the weekend exhausted - we did that to build up conditioning as we head into the conference and national tournament," head coach Zeke Jones said.
Jones' tactics seemed to backfire in the early going as tri-captain Cesar Grajales lost a hard-fought opening match to Harvard's J.P. O'Connor, by a score of 1-0.
O'Connor entered the highly-anticipated showdown ranked second in the nation at 149 pounds.
After Grajales allowed O'Connor to score the match's sole point, with an escape in the second period, the No. 14-ranked Grajales took the match to O'Connor and kept him on the defensive.
But O'Connor was able to ride out the onslaught and eke out the win.
"Grajales won everywhere except the scoreboard . and proved that he can compete with the best in the nation," Jones said.
Following a 4-2 win by Penn's Rob Hitschler at 157 pounds, the Quakers' Tom Timothy lost by major decision at 165 pounds.
Three matches into the meet Penn found itself in a 7-3 hole.
But senior Jeff Zannetti reclaimed momentum for his team by embarrassing Harvard at 174 pounds with a technical fall.
The Crimson couldn't stop the bleeding as Penn's Lior Zamir, Colin Hitschler, Trey McLean, Rollie Peterkin and Bryan Ortenzio nailed the coffin shut with 22 straight points to close out the match.
Peterkin continued Penn's roll Saturday against Brown. Crushing his opponent 15-3, Peterkin gave the Red and Blue an early lead that they were able to keep pinned down.
Following Peterkin's victory, Ortenzio, a freshman, lost a close 2-1 decision.
Bouncing back, Rick Rappo, Grajales and Hitschler strung together three victories, giving the Red and Blue a 14-3 lead.
One hiccup came at 165 pounds, where Brown's Chris Musser dealt Timothy his second loss of the season, 3-1.
But the Quakers won three of the four remaining matches, thanks to Scott Griffin, Zamir and McLean.
Jones was disappointed by Brown's decision to wrestle its backup heavyweight against McLean, instead of former NCAA qualifier Levon Mock.
But he was impressed by his team's resilience and composure in their exhausted state.
"There's no margin for error coming down the stretch," Jones said. "We've got to get ready."
